Intel, AMD debate best chip for cloud

Is the aging x86 instruction set the right one for the future? At the GigaOm Structure 2013show Wednesday, proponents of different chip architectures staged the latest version of this ongoing debate. Structure is an eight-year old show meant to showcase the latest technologies and trends.

AMD general manager Andrew Feldman said AMD has bet on ARM becoming the chip architecture of the future in cloud data centers, as well as client devices where it already predominates. "In 60 years of the computer industry, smaller, lower-cost components have always won out over more expensive ones. In the future we believe it's going to be the ARM processor," he said. Furthermore, ARM will occupy smaller, simpler "single-socket servers" that will be used to build out cloud data centers and ready to deliver services to a compatible ARM processor on millions of mobile devices.